ON the eve of riding for his country in the World Cup Final, Great Britain star Simon Stead talks of his journey from agony to ecstasy in the past 12 months . . .
THIS time last year Simon Stead was laid up and contemplating his future.
In plaster after breaking his lower leg and ankle in a practice crash at the Norfolk Arena "“ home of his 2013 Elite League club, King's Lynn "“ Stead was thinking long and hard about whether or not he would even get back on a bike.
After much soul-searching, and confiding in his nearest and dearest, Stead decided to continue his career. It has proved to be an inspired decision with a revamped lifestyle off the track leading to drastically improved fortunes on it.
So much so that the popular 32 year-old is now little more than 24 hours away from representing his country in the final of the Speedway World Cup.
Stead lines up alongside world champions Tai Woffinden, Chris Harris and Danny King as Great Britain take on Poland, Denmark and Australia in the battle for international supremacy at Bydgoszcz on Saturday night (August 2).
"This time last year I didn't even know whether I would get back on a bike or not," admitted Stead.
"After a long talk with my family, I decided I didn't want to finish my career on the back of a bad accident.
"But if I was going to give it another shot, I wanted to ensure I went about it the right way to give myself the best possible chance of being successful.
"I knew it was an achievable goal and that was a massive carrot dangling in front of me, but I also knew I had to clean my lifestyle up a bit to give speedway one last go.
"It was a case of cutting out drinking and thinks like that, and hitting the gym. I trained harder than I've ever trained during the winter and the season started well on the track.
"Making the provisional Great Britain squad gave me the extra incentive to push on even harder to try to nail down a place in the team, and I was delighted to get the nod."
A rigorous winter regime which saw Stead, along with fellow riders Josh Bates and Ashley Birks, put through their paces by his close friend and former European champion boxer Ryan Rhodes, has been followed by a stack of stellar performances for his two British clubs "“ Elite League side Leicester and hometown Premier League outfit Sheffield.
His consistently high-scoring at both levels put him at the forefront of GB chief Alun Rossiter's plans and he didn't disappoint when powering to victories over two of the top three riders in the world while helping secure a famous Event One victory at King's Lynn last Saturday.
Stead sped clear of Darcy Ward in the opening race and then added the legendary Greg Hancock to his list of scalps in his next outing on his way to a 10-point haul.
Now he has set his sights on helping GB to medals in their first Final appearance for four years.
"Rosco probably had more belief in us than anyone," added Stead, a man whose punditry on Sky Sports' coverage of his Sheffield side's Premier League loss at the hands of Somerset earlier this week proved he is an eloquent off the track as he is exciting on it.
"He could easily have gone with a team featuring Tai Woffinden and three young, up-and-coming riders "“ lads like Lewis Kerr and Rob Lambert who could have done a job at King's Lynn.
"I don't necessary think that type of team would have won Event One and gone directly to the final as we did. Thankfully we justified Rosco's selection as we did the job that he felt we were capable of doing.
"It was great to get us off to a good start at Lynn. I knew I could win the opening race if I was able to make a good start. My engines from Ashley Holloway have been fantastic all year and I just concentrated on getting my head down.
"I don't worry about who is in the race, but I was obviously over the moon to beat Darcy and then Greg later in the meeting.
"The Final is going to be another level to Event One though. Bydgoszcz is not a place I've ridden at much at all and Danny is in the same position.
"Bomber and Woffy do have more experience of the place and we'll be relying on them for guidance with finding the right set-up.
"The fact we have got directly to the final means we have already bettered anything that has been done in the last four years, but to follow it up by taking home a medal would be very, very special and a fantastic achievement for Team GB."
